The Keeper of Night (The Keeper of Night #1)(82)

As I reached the main road and once again Death began crushing the sky down onto me, I knew there was still time. I ran headfirst into the pull of Death, a headache already growing behind my eyes from the constant changing pressure in the air. But when I finally found the Yokai, the problems before me, once again, increased tenfold.

At the foot of a plum tree, by the light of a dim lantern, Neven sat with a nine-tailed fox curled up in his lap.



Chapter Eighteen


“Neven, get away from her,” I said, every muscle painfully tense as Neven stroked the fox’s fur. Who knew what Tamamo No Mae was capable of when upset? I’d already nearly lost Neven to one Yokai. I wasn’t about to watch a magic fox bite into his arteries or scratch his eyes out.

But Neven just raised an eyebrow, looking thoroughly unimpressed with me, and continued to pet the Yokai. She whined at the sound of my voice, burying her nose under the crook of Neven’s elbow.

“This is the ‘terrible Yokai’ you were meant to kill?” he said.

“Put her down,” I said. “She’s dangerous.”

The fox began to glisten, a thousand star flashes bathing her skin, and suddenly a human girl clung to Neven’s side, her nightgown speckled with blood and her face wet with tears. She grabbed fistfuls of Neven’s shirt and pulled herself up to his level, her mouth near his ear.

She whispered in his ear, and his eyes went dark and hollow like moon craters.

In her legend, this was how Tamamo No Mae unraveled all of the men she wanted to lead astray. But I wouldn’t let her take Neven and turn him into one of her monstrous child-eaters.

“Don’t listen to her!” I said, rushing forward to tear her from Neven’s arms, but he shielded her and turned away with a scowl.

“What did she say?” I said, falling to my knees and grabbing Neven’s shirt as he tried to push me away with his free hand. “Neven, what did she say to you?”

“I couldn’t hear anything over your yelling!” Neven said, managing to shove me away. The Yokai wailed in his arms, far too loudly for such a late hour and such a quiet village, but Neven quickly wrapped his arms around her and petted her hair, eyes softening as he shushed her.

“She’s already enchanted you,” I said, the words like lead in my mouth as I fell back in the dirt.

Neven rolled his eyes. “She hasn’t enchanted me, Ren!” he said. “You knew how I felt about this before I’d even met her!”

“You wouldn’t know if she’d enchanted you!” I said. “You heard her story, it’s what she does to men!”

He huffed out a breath, shaking his head. “Why is it so hard for you to believe that I’d want to stop an innocent child from being beheaded?” he said. “Not everyone is like you, Ren. I care about people other than myself.”

I bit back my next words, too afraid of whatever cruelty would spill from my lips. Of course I’d always known I was selfish, but Neven had never said it out loud before, had never admitted that he saw me the same horrible way that I saw myself. No matter how rotten I’d felt inside, I’d always hoped that I could at least be enough for Neven. How stupid of me to think I could ever even pretend to be someone he deserved.

Maybe Neven was right, and this Yokai was really just a helpless child. She hadn’t tried to harm me or Hiro, after all. She’d done nothing but cry like a human, and now that Neven had seen her teary face, he was never going to let her go.

I closed my eyes as the weight of the entire night sky collapsed on top of me—now it was far too late. If I hurt her, or let Hiro hurt her, Neven would hate me forever.

I sat down in the road and stared into the dirt, dazed and exhausted, while Neven rocked the girl back and forth. I didn’t even turn around as Hiro approached. I had no idea where to go from here. For the first time in my life, I saw no escape route, no way that I could possibly win.

Hiro came to a stop beside me and surveyed the scene.

“Neven,” he said, his voice dark.

“Don’t bother,” I said to the ground.

Neven stood up, the girl sniffling into his chest. “Where is her grandmother?” he said.

“Dead,” I said.

Neven sighed, face twisting like both of us disgusted him. “Then what are we meant to do with her?”

“You know exactly what we’re meant to do with her,” Hiro said.

Neven hugged the girl even tighter. “Well, you won’t!”

“Then your sister will never work as a Shinigami!” Hiro said. “Is that what you want?”

Neven looked at me, his eyes softening with guilt. “Of course not. Ren, I... I don’t know how—”

I held up a hand to stop him, shaking my head. There was no point in having this argument. No point to anything at all. I might as well have just fed myself to the nearest Yokai and hoped that my soul ended up somewhere decent.

“Can we trick Izanami?” Neven said, turning back to Hiro. “Make her think that she’s dead?”

Hiro scoffed. “You think it’s that easy?”

Neven flinched at the anger in Hiro’s voice, taking a step back. “I... I don’t know, I just—”

“Why do you think she didn’t ask Ren to bring back any proof that she’d killed the Yokai?” Hiro said, cutting through Neven’s guilty stuttering. “She knows when the souls of her Yokai leave Earth. You can’t simply ship her off somewhere else and lie through your teeth to a Death Goddess. She’d rip Ren’s soul out on the spot.”